Each year, millions of people attend trade shows and conventions of various types. Most trade shows and conventions include space where a variety of vendors display and promote their products and/or services. In addition to displaying their products and/or services, vendors often distribute advertising brochures and other literature, as well as free promotional items such as pens, pencils, stickers, badges, screwdrivers, candy, posters, etc. Each registrant may also receive a large package of materials such as a program and abstracts of the proceedings.
If a trade show attendee collects more than a few pieces of information, he or she may suffer some difficulty or inconvenience carrying it around the trade show unless the attendee has brought a brief case or bag of some sort. In order to facilitate an attendee's collection and transportation of trade show information, many vendors provide carrying bags of various types, which may be used to carry the brochures and other items collected during the trade show or convention. In most cases, the bags provided by the vendors are plastic and are printed with the vendor's name, logo, or other identifying information.
It is not uncommon, particularly at large trade shows, for an attendee to gather one or more bags of information from various vendors. When this occurs, the information can become fairly bulky and heavy, and may be somewhat difficult to carry back to the attendee's home or office. This is particularly true where the attendee has traveled by air from another city to attend the trade show, or where the attendee may be continuing his or her travel to other destinations before returning to the office.
Until now, a trade show attendee who wanted to get a fairly bulky package back to his or her home or office had two primary alternatives: the attendee could carry the heavy, bulky materials in other luggage or as separate packages, or the attendee could seek out packaging materials and shipping services suitable for shipping the package back to the home or office.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a convertible carrying bag/envelope that may be used to carry information obtained at a trade show or convention, and which may be conveniently converted into a sturdy shipping envelope suitable for shipping the information back to the attendee's home or office.